Hence thoſe things, which Lucan relates of Theſſala that Magicianeſs, and Homer of the omnipotency of Circe, whereof many I confeſs are as well of a fallacious opinion, as ſuperſtitious diligence, & pernicious labor, as when they cannot come under a wicked Art, yet they preſume they may be able to cloak themſelves under that venerable title of Magick. Since then theſe things are ſo, I wondered much, and was not leſs angry, that as yet there hath been no man, who did challenge this ſublime and ſacred diſcipline with the crime of impiety, or had delivered it purely and ſincerely to us, ſince I have ſeen of our modern writers Roger Bacon, Robert an Engliſh man, Peter Apponus, Albertus the Teutonich, Arnoldas de villa Nova, Anſelme the Parmenſian, Picatrix the Spaniard, Cicclus Aſculus of Florence, and many others, but writers of an obſcure name, when they promiſed to treat of Magick, to do nothing but irrationall toies, and ſuperſtitions unworthy of honeſt men. Hence my ſpirit was moved, and by reaſon partly of admiration, and partly of indignation, I was willing to play the Philoſopher, ſuppoſing that I ſhould do no diſcommendable work, who have been always from my youth a curious, and undaunted ſearcher for wonderfull effects, and operations full of myſteries; if I ſhould recover that ancient Magick the diſcipline of all wiſe men from the errors of impiety, purifie and adorn it with its proper luſtre, and vindicate it from the injuries of calumniators; which thing, though I long deliberated of it in my mind, yet never durſt as yet undertake, but after ſome conference betwixt us of
theſe
